Author Archives: scarletsaidthat

May 16

On this very first day of National Etiquette Week 2016, what better way to kick off than by highlighting the well-dressed man? We are continually thankful for the male leadership that we have at Scarlet Communications, and also very thankful that they dress so exquisitely.

About a week or so ago, my older cousin attended the White House Correspondents’ Dinner. Either he was trying to taunt me (since I wasn’t going) or he really needed and wanted my input about his attire. Since we’re pretty much siblings, I’m gonna say that it was a mix of both.

Mr. Justin Kimpson – Scarlet Instructor

We exchanged a number of texts back and forth about attire choices, which are minimal compared to what women have, especially for a Black Tie Event. Time and time again, we kept arriving back at a classic black tuxedo with a traditional black bow tie and a vest. For some reason, this situation stuck with me. I kept thinking about the fashion disparity among genders, and decided to dig in to see how disadvantaged men really were in the formal attire category.

After a bit of research, I’m still convinced that women have a lot more options, but men definitely have a great pool of options to choose from. From switching up the collars and cuffs to ensuring the detail of the cufflinks is considered, men have more options than you’d think. The question is, are these options known and more importantly, are men taking advantage?

Scarlet Says... While women may seemingly have more attire options when it comes to formal wear, it isn’t the quantity of the items that should be considered, but instead the attention to detail of the items selected. There is certainly something magical about the simple, uncomplicated and effortless attire of a well-dressed man.

Until Next Time,

Scarlet

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May 16

Hosting out-of-town guests can be exciting, but sometimes equally as anxiety inducing. So, it’s no surprise to me that this past weekend while hosting my dad and aunt, there was a bit of a mix of both emotions as I worked through what types of activities would ensue.

Both my aunt and my dad have visited me in the past, so it wasn’t a complete guessing game about what types of things they wanted to do, but yet, I still should have asked.

When people are way from home, it is my belief that making them feel as comfortable as possible will result in everyone’s experience being enjoyable, relaxing and filled with positive memories.So, I did just that. I also took the liberty of scheduling some things that I knew they would enjoy, including a game night, a few jazz related activities, plenty of food outings and even a surprise drop in visit from other family visiting the area over the weekend.

Now, for me, this amount of weekend activities seemed pretty appropriate. But, I quickly learned that for my dad and aunt, it was a bit too much. I am very much used to a weekend filled with hustle, bustle and more hustle. It’s common for me to fit in 100 million things into a weekend trip somewhere, but that’s just me. My aunt and dad were more than happy with one day time outing and a delicious meal of some sort every day. So, during one of the completely overfilled days, one of them said, “maybe we can just go back home after this”.

And then it clicked…

Scarlet Says… Just like the evolution, growth and change of almost everything else in our lives, even the Golden Rule itself has advanced. Let’s make it a point to embrace not doing unto others as you would have them do unto you, but instead, treating others how they want to be treated. The next time you host someone at your home or are entertaining out-of-town guests, just ask them, “what would you like to do with your time here”, then take it from there!

Apr 16

What is it that you definitively LOVE? Is it traveling, shopping, cooking, your mate, FOOTBALL? If it’s football, today is definitely your day, since the NFL Draft kicks off this evening.

Speaking of football…while I was quickly shuffling from one plane to the next over the weekend, I saw a gentleman with this shirt on. Now, while I have my fair share of football knowledge and for the 5th straight year, Scarlet will be providing the Detroit Lions Rookies multi day etiquette training, I do not attest to being a football fanatic. So my first reaction to this shirt was an eye roll (in my mind).

Of course, I was walking alongside my husband who thought that the shirt was the absolutely best thing he had seen this year.

We are a household who listens to sports talk radio pretty much every day, even when the sport of choice (football) isn’t in season. So as you can imagine, we’re almost always on sports overload during every season of the year.

Now, let’s be clear. I knew EXACTLY what I was signing up for when marrying a sports aficionado a few years ago, so I keep most of my griping to myself. More importantly, when an eye roll starts to try to make an appearance, I remind myself that my husband isn’t the only one who has some borderline obsessive behavior, as it relates to thing things he enjoys doing. My love for cheese, deep house music and all things etiquette can sometimes border on obsessive as well. Despite this, I can say that there is a continual purposeful attempt to not over expose (or annoy) each other with our own individual likes, loves and obsessions. (READ MORE)...

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Mar 16

I hate to break the news to you, but we’ve already seen 1/4th of this year pass us by! It is the absolutely last day of March and some of you may be wondering, when am I going to find the time to do all of those amazing things that I had on my list of resolutions?!?!

Well, just like we recycle and remix music, past fashion trends, movies and TV shows, we have the pleasure of doing the same thing as it relates to our personal growth and goals.

In January, we placed a strong focus on Goal Settingand in February, we followed it up with Staying Focused. If you’ve found yourself struggling to determine where your time went, what you’ve truly accomplished this year or what your next steps should be, don’t look too far or too hard because the help that you need is just a few lines up highlighted in blue and conveniently underlined.

We spend so much time trying to figure things out or work on ourselves that often times, the answers are right in front of us. If you are trying to focus on professional development for yourself, you have an arsenal of information at your fingertips via the internet. You probably also have a slew of books on your book shelf that you’ve been meaning to visit (or revisit) at some point in your life. You also likely have a network of friends, family acquaintances who are skilled in something that you want to be proficient in…(READ MORE)

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Mar 16

About 4 years ago, we were in the market for a travel agent to assist with planning our wedding in Mexico. Although I’ve had a significant amount of experience in wedding planning, doing so internationally wasn’t quite my thing, so I knew that I needed an experienced travel agent. With all of the do it yourself options online nowadays, coming across an experienced and dedicated travel agent seemed almost impossible.

I recall that some dear friends of ours, the now married coupled, Mack and Linda Ornsby Hendricks, had just hosted a beautiful wedding in Costa Rica, so I reached out to see if they had used anyone to assist, and luckily they did. Now, at a first pass, I’ll admit, I was skeptical. Brenda has an email address that ends in comcast.net, which always makes me a bit eerie. I always expect that in business, a company or person should have a non-public domain name, but I digress. I pushed that piece of information to the side and took the recommendation at face value and reached out to her and I’m so happy that I did.

This is where the, now 4 year relationship, with our travel agent began. Mack and Linda referred us to a woman named Brenda Stock, who has been our consistent, reliable and dedicated travel agent since we’ve met her. While I take recommendations from my friends seriously, Brenda has surpassed the recommendation and went above and beyond proving that she is a highly qualified resource. She has even planned trips for my friends and family because of our recommendations. I was recently doing a brief tally in my head of how many trips she has planned for us or from a recommendation from us and that number is quite impressive.

But why? What has made Brenda’s service so outstanding and even caused me to push some usually, baseline business basics to the side. It really boils down to 4 things:

Consistence

Responsiveness

Professionalism

Industry Knowledge

Over the past 4 years, every encounter with Brenda has had the 4 components above. Unlike many professionals, who get used to your business, then begin to be a bit more lax in their responsiveness or professionalism, this is not the case for Brenda. The even more ironic and partially amazing things about this business relationship is that I’ve never physically met Brenda before; all of our encounters have been either via phone or email, which is completely against how I prefer to do business. Brenda gives her perspective of industry specifics and recommendations and she consistently meets or exceeds our expectations. In an industry where most people take to the Internet to “self serve” their travel needs, it’s nice to have a reliable professional who consistently exceeds expectations and does so with professionalism, industry knowledge and impeccable response time.

Scarlet Says… Customer Service has one key word that should be kept in mind – “customer”. The success or demise of a business is strongly indicative of how the customer is treated. If you want your business to succeed and thrive, take special care in how you treat your biggest asset – your customer.

Until next time,

Scarlet

Want to learn more about Customer Service Etiquette and how it can enhance your organization, just click HERE!

Feb 16

What is it that you really want to do? Where do you want to really spend your time?

Although most of us spend a substantial amount of time working hard – really hard, it’s not where we want to spend all of our time.

Most of us want to spend the majority of our time enjoying friends and family, relaxing, taking vacations or participating in our favorite hobbies, activities and celebrations. Most of us do not want to spend every waking hour working our lives away. But, unfortunately, many of us do. We spend more time in our offices or with our co-workers and colleagues than we do on the things that we value the most.

Feb 16

You’ve found the one – the one person who does it for you. They’re pretty much everything that you wanted to have in a mate and things have gone just magically.

So, your relationship progresses, then you decide, let’s expand our relationship a bit. Perhaps you’ve thought, “well, we’re pretty good people, so let’s populate the world with more little people like us”. You agree to procreate and commence to going half on a baby.

Congratulations, the baby arrives and then something less magical appears to begin happening. You and your mate no longer have time for each other anymore. The baby has completely taken over any of the free time and money that you once had.

This is a recent scenario that has been shared with us numerous times and couples are frustrated because they really want that old thing back-the romance, the desire to feel special or just an acknowledgment of the sacrifices they are making to make the relationship work.

So, what do you do if you’re in this situation? What do you do if you feel like your relationship as you once knew it is being hijacked by your children, your career, your parents or your business?

You’re pretty much going to have to revisit the basics. The same things things that you diligently engaged in to initially secure your mate will have to be dusted off and revisited.

Did you once take your mate out on spontaneous dates?

Did you used to send flowers or lunch to them without warning?

Did you used to make their favorite meal or snack and surprise them with it?

Well, guess what? It’s still OK to do these things.

Regardless of which role you play in the relationship, you have an opportunity to make your mate feel special in spite of timing challenges by just revising the simple, little things.

Your career, your children, your entrepreneurial endeavors. All of those things will always require your attention and there will always be items competing for your time. Your mate – the one that once made you feel giddy, special and admired enough to win your heart is still in there.

Scarlet Says…Take the time to tend to what’s important and special to you. You deserve it, your mate deserves it and your healthy, thriving relationship will thank you later.

Until next time,

Scarlet

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Jan 16

Doesn’t it seem like time just comes and goes so quickly? I mean – we all just welcomed the new year of 2016 and we’ve also welcomed and will soon say good bye to the month of January. With all of life’s commitments, it may leave you wondering, where does all of your time go and when will you really be able to find the time to complete all of the goals that you’ve set for yourself this year? (READ MORE)…